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Our modern-day conception of the Vikings is of groups of fearsome warriors out for plunder. Taking ship, they'd sail for the nearest unprotected town or monastery and there overcome any resisters, killing and looting. They'd take everything of value-including people. They'd then leave with their plunder and new slaves and go back to their homes. These raiders and killers would be gone before anyone could raise a defense against them.

This is a true picture of the Vikings, as they raided and plundered for a couple of hundred years. Yet it is not the only picture we should have of these energetic people. Besides occasional raids, Vikings were explorers, traders and extraordinary craftsmen. It is by virtue of their shipbuilders and weapon makers that the Vikings were so successful in raiding European countries.

Most Vikings were farmers as previously mentioned in "Life on a Viking Farm". They were also excellent all-around handymen: carpenters, blacksmiths, bone-carvers, animal doctors, fence repairers, herdsmen and so on. They could do whatever was needed around the farm-they made or repaired most of the tools and they built whatever building they needed for themselves and their animals. When work on the farm slowed down, then the Viking farmers might get with a group and go raiding, exploring or trading.

As the Viking Age progressed, trading centers began to appear in each of the Viking countries: Sweden, Norway and Denmark. Gradually, these centers, where traders from all over Europe, Russia and the Middle East would come, grew into towns. In these towns, and others in Europe and Russia, Vikings began to specialize in the arts, crafts, metalworking, pottery etc. By the middle of the Viking age, you'd find not only Viking farmers, traders and blacksmiths, but armor and weapon makers, carpenters, stone carvers, jewelry makers, bead makers, bone and antler carvers, cup makers, potters, weavers, slave traders and amber dealers.

Besides raiding and farming, Vikings were exceptional craftsmen. Shipbuilders built not only the dreaded dragon ships, but also knarrs, ocean-going merchant ships, and a variety of other specialized boats. Jewelers, bronze-casters, antler carvers and bead makers made their splendid jewelry in every trading town. Viking craftsmen produced tableware, clothing, leather work, shoes and boots and every other kind of tool or household object that people used in those days.

While our impression of the Vikings as terrifying warriors isn't wrong, it also isn't the only image we should have. The Scandinavian people had a huge impact on the history and culture of Russia and Europe. Their trade empire went from the Arctic Circle to Northern Africa and all points between, including the Middle East. They found and settled the new colonies of Iceland, Greenland and Vinland, at least temporarily. They founded new states in Normandy, France and in the Ukraine in Russia and conquered England. Vikings were raiders and pirates, but they were so much more besides.
This article is part of our larger selection of posts about Vikings history. To learn more, click here for our comprehensive guide to Vikings history

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Viking Occupations: What Did Vikings Do When They Weren't Raiding? - History

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Our modern-day conception of the Vikings is of groups of fearsome warriors out for plunder. Taking ship, they'd sail for the nearest unprotected town or monastery and there overcome any resisters, killing and looting. They'd take everything of value-including people. They'd then leave with their plunder and new slaves and go back to their homes.

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The vikings originally settled the Scandinavian lands of northern Europe.  They were mainly from the countries  that today are Denmark, Sweden, and Norway
The vikings traveled by boats specifically made for raiding and exploration
The Vikings played a major role in Northern Europe during the Middle Ages, especially during the Viking Age which was from 800 CE to 1066 CE.

They first showed up on the shores of England in 787 C.E. to raid villages

They mainly raided Western and Eastern Europe and were pagans who often targeted Monasteries.

Besides the raiding, vikings traded, explored, and well talented craftsman. Their shipbuilders and weaponry is what made them so successful in raiding Europe.

The history of the Vikings is closely linked to their role as masters of the sea. They were feared as fierce and ruthless pirates. Their superior ships explored unknown seas and they settled new lands.

Besides being known as ruthless pirates, they lived in well-ordered society, based on democracy and law.

Viking society was divided into three social classes. the nobles or jarls, the middle class or karls and the slaves or thralls.

Women had high power and were responsible for the farm when men were abroad. Women were not forced into marriage and could divorce, unlike other cultures at the time.

In viking society, a good blacksmith and a good poet, were equally acknowledged
Viking art was recognized as fine art all over the known world.
From Scandinavia, the Vikings traveled south and settled in  England, Ireland, France, and Spain
The Vikings explored and traded in the Arabian world in Northern Africa and parts of Russia
When traveling to the Middle East, they traded silk, spices and jewelry with travelers from the Orient. They traveled to these areas through the big rivers of Europe. They could pull their ships over land and during the winter, had sleighs pulled by horses
Sports were a bid deal in The Vikings lives. These sports included spear and stone throwing, wrestling and fist-fighting, and stone lifting. They also practiced mountain climbing and swimming for sports.
It is likely that all men were required to carry weapons and were permitted to carry them at all times. A wealthy viking had a complete ensemble of a helmet, shield, mail shirt, and sword.
A common misconception about vikings is the horned helmets they were in battle. No preserved helmets show any traces of horns
In 1066, the Vikings, led by King Harald Hardrada of Norway were defeated by the English and King Harold Godwinson. The loss of this battle is sometimes used to symbolize the end of the Viking Age. At this point the Vikings stopped expanding their territory and raiding became less frequent. The coming of Christianity is also a major reason of the end of the Viking age. When Scandinavia converted to Christianity it became part of Christian Europe, and the vikings became a part of mainland Europe.

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When I talk to general audience on Viking topics, some frequently asked questions are: What happened to the Vikings? Where are they now? Did they die off? Were they conquered?

Before discussing what happened to them, it's helpful to know who they were. A simplistic definition calls the Vikings those people who lived in Scandinavia and the North Atlantic settlements in the Viking age, with the Viking age arbitrarily defined as the years between 793 and 1066. It was during this time that these Northern people had the largest impact on other Europeans, through trade, and through their Viking raids.

However, most of these people would not have called themselves Vikings. In the old Norse language, the word víkingr means pirate or raider, and few of these Northern people participated in raiding. Raiding was a part time occupation, practiced by a small percentage of the population. Few Vikings were professional soldiers, although like all men in this era, they were familiar with the use of weapons. These people were farmers first and needed to take care of the farm chores most of the year. They were entrepreneurs: business men who saw raiding as a means of acquiring capital that could be invested in a ship, in a farm, or in a business. Others may have been on the lookout for land on which they could settle. Raiding was thought to be desirable for a young man, but a more mature man was expected to settle down on the farm and raise a family.

However, to the victims of the Viking raids, the raiding was the only aspect of the Viking culture to which they were exposed, and it is this aspect that was recorded in the histories and other documents. In these histories, the raiders are called Northmen, the people who arrived from the northern lands.

Using this definition as a basis, it's easy to answer to the question: what happened to the Vikings? Nothing happened to them. After the Viking age, the Northmen continued living their lives in the Scandinavian countries, and in the settlements created during the Viking age, such as Iceland and Greenland. The end of the Vikings occurred when the Northmen stopped raiding.

A better question to ask is: why did the Vikings stop raiding? The simple answer is that changes took place in European societies that made raiding less profitable and less desirable. Changes occurred not only in the Norse societies, but also throughout Europe where the raids took place.

At the beginning of the Viking age, Norse society tended to be egalitarian, with a large number of free, land-owning farmers who had the necessary means and time to engage in raiding. A ship, required for raiding, was a substantial investment, and one couldn't leave one's farm unless there were enough hired hands available to take care of the farm chores while the owner was out raiding.

By the end of the Viking age, this balance had changed. There were a small number of privileged, wealthy men, and a much larger number of landless men who were tied to the land they worked in order to pay their rents and fees, while supporting their families. These people were not available to go raiding.

At the beginning of the Viking age, many European lands had no central authority figures. Instead, petty kings and local chieftains were the rule in most lands. At the beginning of the Viking age, the Norse societies tended to avoid central authority. A story from the Frankish annals illustrates this aspect of the Viking culture. When a band of Danish raiders arrived in Frankish lands, they were met by a Frankish emissary, who asked to be taken to the leader of the Viking band. He was told, "We are all leaders here."

By the end of the Viking age, most European lands had strong central authorities, including trained, standing armies capable of mounting effective defenses against Viking attacks. Generally, the Vikings were not trained, organized troops. While skilled at arms, their shock tactics were ineffective against trained, professional soldiers supported by the king.

Another change that occurred as a result of the Viking attacks was that some of the more desirable targets were fortified or modified, making them less susceptible to Viking raids. Monasteries built easily defendable towers, where valuables and people could be moved quickly in the event of a raid. Some monasteries were moved inland, away from the reach of ship-based Vikings. The island monastery at Iona was raided three times by Vikings, in the years 795, 802, and 806. Beginning in the year 807, the monastery was moved about 20 miles (35km) inland for safety.

The Christian church arrived in the Viking lands at the end of the Viking age. The Viking raids were not in keeping with some of the tenets of the Christian church, so it is not a surprise that the arrival of the church and the decline of raiding are closely tied. In chapter 9 of Bjarnar saga Hítdælakappa, King Ólafr told Björn that he wanted Björn to give up raiding, saying, "Though you feel it suits you well, God's law is often violated." During the tenure of Bishop Gizurr Ísleifsson (at the end of the 11th century), the practice of bearing arms in Iceland was largely abandoned, a significant change from both the centuries both before and after.

The Viking age ended when the raids stopped. The year 1066 is frequently used as a convenient marker for the end of the Viking age. At the Battle of Stamford Bridge, the Norwegian king Haraldr harðráði was repulsed and killed as he attempted to reclaim a portion of England. It was the last major Viking incursion into Europe.

The raids slowed and stopped because the times changed. It was no longer profitable or desirable to raid. The Vikings weren't conquered. Because there were fewer and fewer raids, to the rest of Europe they became, not Vikings, but Danes and Swedes and Norwegians and Icelanders and Greenlanders and Faroese and so on.

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When I talk to general audience on Viking topics, some frequently asked questions are: What happened to the Vikings? Where are they now? Did they die off? Were they conquered? Before discussing what happened to them, it's helpful to know who they were.

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The Vikings were invaders and settlers who came from Scandinavia and travelled by boat as far as North America in the west and Central Asia in the east from about 700 AD to 1100.

The word "Viking" meant "pirate raid" in the Old Norse language that was spoken in Scandinavia around the same period. And the Vikings are certainly most famous for their plundering.

But not all Vikings were pirates or raiders. Many voyaged to other countries to settle peacefully and farm or craft, while others travelled the high seas to trade goods to take back home to Scandinavia.

Leaving Scandinavia

These Norsemen, as they were known, began raiding as a means to survive as their populations expanded. The lands they came from were rocky and sandy and offered little in the way of good farm land.

Any fertile land that was to be found was jealously controlled by Jarls (owners of lands and men, 'Earls' in English) and self proclaimed kings. They therefore took what they needed from others, from lands with richer soil and less warlike tendencies.

The "Danes" who went to the British Isles

The Vikings' first raid on the British Isles took place in 787 AD. But it wasn't until 793 and their attack on the wealthy and unprotected monastery island of Lindisfarne that their campaign of terror against the Anglo-Saxons really got going.

This raid, which took the Anglo-Saxons by surprise and sent shivers of fear across both the British Isles and the European mainland, is usually the point at which historians date the start of the Viking Age. The attack showed the Vikings what treasures awaited them on foreign shores and in the coming centuries they would raid as far as Constantinople in their quest for wealth, slaves and glory.

Anglo-Saxon kingdoms in modern-day England suffered particularly badly, however. The Anglo-Saxons called their terrorisers "Danes" but in reality the Vikings who came to the British Isles were also from Norway and Sweden.

As pagans, the Vikings thought nothing of targeting Christian sites and monasteries proved to be goldmines for them - both metaphorically and literally speaking. Not only were they filled with valuable treasures, such as gold and jewels, and other things worth stealing, like clothing and cattle, but the monks had no weapons with which to defend themselves.
In 865, the Scandinavians sailed across the North Sea with a different purpose in mind. With good farmland increasingly scarce in their own lands, the Vikings didn't want to just steal from the Anglo-Saxons and run off with the spoils this time around; they wanted to conquer land and stay put.
The Vikings came to settle large swathes of modern-day England, primarily in the north and east, with some also settling in parts of Scotland, Ireland and Wales. In fact, it was these invaders who founded the city of Dublin.

Over the next 200 years, control of England went back and forth between the Vikings and the Anglo-Saxons, with the year 1066 seen as the end point of the Viking Age. This year marked the death of Harald Hardrada, seen as the last great Viking king, at the Battle of Stamford Bridge, and the Norman conquest of England.

They were very good at a lot of things
As we've seen, the Vikings were clearly very good at raiding and invading; but those was just two of their many skills. They were also excellent craftsmen, not least when it came to boat-building. In fact, if it hadn't been for their talents in this field then they probably wouldn't have made some of the voyages that got them to the places where they carried out their infamous raiding in the first place.
The Vikings' advanced boat-making and the skill with which they used the end product also made them very good explorers. The most famous of the Viking explorers is undoubtedly Leif Erikson, who beat Christopher Columbus to the "New World" by a whopping 500 years.

As if all that wasn't enough, these Scandinavians were also skilled at metalwork, wood carving, fishing and trading, exchanging goods for everything from silver and spices to wine and pottery. And they were resourceful bakers. They made a wide variety of breads, including a sourdough-style loaf!

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Where Did the Vikings Come From and Who Were They?

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The Vikings were invaders and settlers who came from Scandinavia and travelled by boat as far as North America in the west and Central Asia in the east from about 700 AD to 1100. The word "Viking" meant "pirate raid" in the Old Norse language that was spoken in Scandinavia around the same period.

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Who Were the Vikings?

Contrary to some popular conceptions of the Vikings, they were not a "race" linked by ties of common ancestry or patriotism, and could not be defined by any particular sense of "Viking-ness." Most of the Vikings whose activities are best known come from the areas now known as Denmark, Norway and Sweden, though there are mentions in historical records of Finnish, Estonian and Saami Vikings as well. Their common ground-and what made them different from the European peoples they confronted-was that they came from a foreign land, they were not "civilized" in the local understanding of the word and-most importantly-they were not Christian.

The exact reasons for Vikings venturing out from their homeland are uncertain; some have suggested it was due to overpopulation of their homeland, but the earliest Vikings were looking for riches, not land. In the eighth century A.D., Europe was growing richer, fueling the growth of trading centers such as Dorestad and Quentovic on the Continent and Hamwic (now Southampton), London, Ipswich and York in England. Scandinavian furs were highly prized in the new trading markets; from their trade with the Europeans, Scandinavians learned about new sailing technology as well as about the growing wealth and accompanying inner conflicts between European kingdoms. The Viking predecessors-pirates who preyed on merchant ships in the Baltic Sea-would use this knowledge to expand their fortune-seeking activities into the North Sea and beyond.

Early Viking Raids

In A.D. 793, an attack on the Lindisfarne monastery off the coast of Northumberland in northeastern England marked the beginning of the Viking Age. The culprits-probably Norwegians who sailed directly across the North Sea-did not destroy the monastery completely, but the attack shook the European religious world to its core. Unlike other groups, these strange new invaders had no respect for religious institutions such as the monasteries, which were often left unguarded and vulnerable near the shore. Two years later, Viking raids struck the undefended island monasteries of Skye and Iona (in the Hebrides) as well as Rathlin (off the northeast coast of Ireland). The first recorded raid in continental Europe came in 799, at the island monastery of St Philibert's on Noirmoutier, near the estuary of the Loire River.

For several decades, the Vikings confined themselves to hit-and-run raids against coastal targets in the British Isles (particularly Ireland) and Europe (the trading center of Dorestad, 80 kilometers from the North Sea, became a frequent target after 830). They then took advantage of internal conflicts in Europe to extend their activity further inland: after the death of Louis the Pious, emperor of Frankia (modern-day France and Germany), in 840, his son Lothar actually invited the support of a Viking fleet in a power struggle with brothers. Before long other Vikings realized that Frankish rulers were willing to pay them rich sums to prevent them from attacking their subjects, making Frankia an irresistible target for further Viking activity.

Did you know? The name Viking came from the Scandinavians themselves, from the Old Norse word "vik" (bay or creek) which formed the root of "vikingr" (pirate).

Conquests in the British Isles

By the mid-ninth century, Ireland, Scotland and England had become major targets for Viking settlement as well as raids. Vikings gained control of the Northern Isles of Scotland (Shetland and the Orkneys), the Hebrides and much of mainland Scotland. They founded Ireland's first trading towns: Dublin, Waterford, Wexford, Wicklow and Limerick, and used their base on the Irish coast to launch attacks within Ireland and across the Irish Sea to England. When King Charles the Bald began defending West Frankia more energetically in 862, fortifying towns, abbeys, rivers and coastal areas, Viking forces began to concentrate more on England than Frankia.

In the wave of Viking attacks in England after 851, only one kingdom-Wessex-was able to successfully resist. Viking armies (mostly Danish) conquered East Anglia and Northumberland and dismantled Mercia, while in 871 King Alfred the Great of Wessex became the only king to decisively defeat a Danish army in England. Leaving Wessex, the Danes settled to the north, in an area known as "Danelaw." Many of them became farmers and traders and established York as a leading mercantile city. In the first half of the 10th century, English armies led by the descendants of Alfred of Wessex began reconquering Scandinavian areas of England; the last Scandinavian king, Erik Bloodaxe, was expelled and killed around 952, permanently uniting English into one kingdom.

Viking Settlements: Europe and Beyond

Meanwhile, Viking armies remained active on the European continent throughout the ninth century, brutally sacking Nantes (on the French coast) in 842 and attacking towns as far inland as Paris, Limoges, Orleans, Tours and Nimes. In 844, Vikings stormed Seville (then controlled by the Arabs); in 859, they plundered Pisa, though an Arab fleet battered them on the way back north. In 911, the West Frankish king granted Rouen and the surrounding territory by treaty to a Viking chief called Rollo in exchange for the latter's denying passage to the Seine to other raiders. This region of northern France is now known as Normandy, or "land of the Northmen."

In the ninth century, Scandinavians (mainly Norwegians) began to colonize Iceland, an island in the North Atlantic where no one had yet settled in large numbers. By the late 10th century, some Vikings (including the famous Erik the Red) moved even further westward, to Greenland. According to later Icelandic histories, some of the early Viking settlers in Greenland (supposedly led by the Viking hero Leif Eriksson, son of Erik the Red) may have become the first Europeans to discover and explore North America. Calling their landing place Vinland (Wine-land), they built a temporary settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows in modern-day Newfoundland. Beyond that, there is little evidence of Viking presence in the New World, and they didn't form permanent settlements.

Danish Dominance

The mid-10th-century reign of Harald Bluetooth as king of a newly unified, powerful and Christianized Denmark marked the beginning of a second Viking age. Large-scale raids, often organized by royal leaders, hit the coasts of Europe and especially England, where the line of kings descended from Alfred the Great was faltering. Harald's rebellious son, Sven Forkbeard, led Viking raids on England beginning in 991 and conquered the entire kingdom in 1013, sending King Ethelred into exile. Sven died the following year, leaving his son Knut (or Canute) to rule a Scandinavian empire (comprising England, Denmark, and Norway) on the North Sea.

After Knut's death, his two sons succeeded him, but both were dead by 1042 and Edward the Confessor, son of the previous (non-Danish) king, returned from exile and regained the English throne from the Danes. Upon his death (without heirs) in 1066, Harold Godwinesson, the son of Edward's most powerful noble, laid claim to the throne. Harold's army was able to defeat an invasion led by the last great Viking king-Harald Hardrada of Norway-at Stamford Bridge, near York, but fell to the forces of William, Duke of Normandy (himself a descendant of Scandinavian settlers in northern France) just weeks later. Crowned king of England on Christmas Day in 1066, William managed to retain the crown against further Danish challenges.

End of the Viking Age

The events of 1066 in England effectively marked the end of the Viking Age. By that time, all of the Scandinavian kingdoms were Christian, and what remained of Viking "culture" was being absorbed into the culture of Christian Europe. Today, signs of the Viking legacy can be found mostly in the Scandinavian origins of some vocabulary and place-names in the areas in which they settled, including northern England, Scotland and Russia. In Iceland, the Vikings left an extensive body of literature, the Icelandic sagas, in which they celebrated the greatest victories of their glorious past.

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The Vikings were a group of Scandinavian seafaring warriors who left their homelands from around 800 A.D. to the 11th century, and raided coastal towns. Over the next three centuries, they would leave their mark on much of Britain and the European continent, as well as parts of modern-day Russia, Iceland, Greenland and Newfoundland.

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I learned what the Scandinavian area consists of, this is the original home of the vikings

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What a viking ship looked like during exploration

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A real recovered viking ship gives me an idea of what they really looked like

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Shows me what Vikings looked like upon arrival of new lands

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Gives me a sense of what the vikings looked like when raiding and battling.

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I learned what the common raiding viking looked like

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Recovered viking helmets shows me what they looked like.

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I learned what a fleet of viking ships looked like upon exploration